Chapter 10

The Social Indicators III report on public safety is, as its predecessor in 1976, largely a report on major crimes against persons and their property and social responses to them, rather than a statistical report on public safety. The view of crime as the overriding concern in public safety is examined. The profile of major crimes against persons as violent and against their property as serious is scrutinized by presenting more detailed statistics on victimization by crime and its consequences included in both Uniform Crime Reporting and the National Crime Survey. Evidence is provided that reporting for major types of crime, such as rape, robbery, burglary, and larceny-theft, masks considerable heterogeneity in seriousness of crime events. A substantial proportion of some crimes that are attempted, rather than completed events, that either result in no material harm to the victim or very little, and that disclose recovery and compensation for loss, all cast doubt upon the view that most crimes against persons are violent and that crimes against persons and property result in substantial physical harm and economic loss. Statistics on crime, unfortunately, do not permit one to relate the cost of one victimization to one economic position, so that just how trivial much crime victimization is remains in doubt. Current statistics likewise do not permit one to calculate one's risk of victimization by crime.